According to Barclay Street Real Estate’s first quarter market update, the retail vacancy rate in the city’s central business district was 11.5 per cent, up from 10.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, in a total inventory of 3.8 million square feet.

According to a report by Barclay Street Real Estate, the retail vacancy rate was unchanged in the first quarter of this year at 3.4 per cent. That consisted of about 1.39 million square feet available for lease in a total inventory of 40.5 million square feet. The amount of space available for lease was up 32,000 square feet from the previous quarter. The report says Calgary continues to draw significant interest from major retailers and an expected 1.64 million square feet of new space is expected to be completed this year.

Anthony Scott, director of research at Barclay Street Real Estate, noted there are glimmers of recovery but at “the smallest end of available options.” This refers to startup companies leasing downtown offices of 2,000 square feet or less.

Is there a glimmer of hope in Calgary's struggling downtown office market? "Interesting things happened in the downtown market over the first three months of the year; notably in leasing trends at the smallest end of avail able options," said a report by Barclay Street Real Estate. "A significant decrease in spaces of 2,000 square feet occurred while spaces of greater than 10,000 square feet increased."

While the full recovery of Calgary’s office market may still be a long way off, the sense of panic that once might have been present has dissipated.
“From this office and from my peers and my clients on a going forward basis, it’s a positive mindset driven by the new entrepreneurs that are going to come up in the next one to 10 years,” said Andrew King, associate vice-president of Barclay Street Real Estate, which just issued its first-quarter report on the Calgary office sector.